[nfb-talk] To Be or Not to Be, Irritated

[Kenneth Chrane]

Hi Joseph, why not return to The Gold Standard.
In 1900, people had the silver dollar, then the five dollar gold piece, and 
the ten dollar gold piece.
I think there was a 20 dollar gold piece.
For more information about coins, please call Swiss American Trading at 
1-800-289-2646, Monday through Friday from 8 am to 5 pm Eastern Time.
I think that paper money started to be made around that time.
I know the President Franklin D. Roosevelt took us off of the Gold Standard 
in 1933.
The notes we have now is Federal Reserve notes that was introduced during 
the Christmas Holidays in 1913 because President Wilson signed a bill into 
Law around that time.
This is all that I know about the matter.
Ken Chrane
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "T. Joseph Carter" <tjosephcarter at gmail.com>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 4:06 AM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] To Be or Not to Be, Irritated


> Mike,
>
> I doubt there will be a need to change cash drawers.  I do think machines
> that take denominations higher than $1 will need it, but they already do
> every time the government alters the currency, which happens about once a
> decade anyway.  If I had my way, the $1 machines would need revamping this
> time too (so that a single, uniform progression were implemented) with the
> dollar bill being the last to be changed, about 12 years from now, and tax
> credits for each vending machine over about six years to help pay for the
> revamping.
>
> Of course, I recognize that it would take that long to introduce a new
> currency, and that anything done to improve the currency for us MUST
> happen as part of the regular revision schedule.  The only thing that
> should be done any different is the concerted effort to remove old bills
> from circulation rather than continuing to circulate them until they "wear
> out"--the average lifespan of a treasury note is 18 months, with a very
> large variance.  The difference in transition time is between 15 and as
> much as perhaps 30 years.
>
> One of my major concerns with the ACB's push in this area is that they do
> not seem to have considered these details.  They think you can wave a
> magic wand and have the money all be different, and that it won't cost
> that much to do it.  What it costs (and who exactly pays the price) is a
> direct consequence of what changes are made and how fast you want them to
> be implemented.
>
> You could spend more money than the cost of military action in Iraq and
> Afghanistan combined and try to accomplish a changeover in a few years,
> and it probably still wouldn't happen cleanly.  Or you could have it take
> forever like any real big and complex government project does, and the
> costs are "a couple of million" a year, over a long time.  In political
> terms, that's a drop in the bucket.  Of course, this being politics, the
> bottom of the bucket has more holes than a cheese grater, naturally.
>
>
> As to the potential impact of legislation on the laws...  This is a very
> real fear, but it's a real fear any time one of these laws goes before the
> courts.  Shall we never file suit over failure to fulfill obligations
> under the ADA or Rehab Act?  If these laws are used and struck down in the
> courts, that is indeed a bad thing.  But then, isn't it worse when the
> laws are never enforced?  What good is a right guaranteed under the law if
> nobody follows the law and we're afraid to seek justice?
>
> Perhaps if you're going to take the risk, it should be taken over
> something more important than the currency issue, but the ACB took that
> risk for good or for ill.  By trying to fight against them on it, we
> actually make it more likely that we will have the precise result you say
> you want to prevent.  If that wasn't true in the original case, it
> certainly was true after the original decision came down complete with a
> finding of fact that the currency we have now is NOT sufficiently
> accessible to the blind, regardless of what we may think about that.
>
> By continuing to argue against the finding of fact (which is not open to
> appeal), we invite the appellate court to find SOME way to rule against
> the ACB.  That can only happen if the findings of law are in error, as I
> understand it.  How best to have the findings of law be erroneous?  That's
> easy, you cripple the law so that it doesn't apply to the case anymore.  I
> have raised this point before, and you have not addressed it.
>
> Basically, the best thing we can do, from my perspective, to assure that
> the laws we depend upon are not crippled by the courts is to shut up and
> stay out of the ACB case after the 2006 decision.  We didn't, and who
> knows what's going to happen now.  The only thing I am sure of is that we
> now share some of the responsibility for whatever happens if they lose.
>
> Joseph
>
> On Fri, May 09, 2008 at 06:55:25PM -0700, Mike Freeman wrote:
>> Harmeet:
>>
>> I don't think accessible currency would have an effect on blind persons
>> and jobs one way or the other. I just don't think there'd be a grand
>> rush to handle such jobs as cashiering because other equipment (such as
>> cash registers) would have to be modified and I just don't see the sorts
>> of establishments we're talking about giving a tinker's damn about
>> making their gear accessible.
>>
>> In any event, the real reason I introduced the 2002 currency resolution
>> was that I did not think it discriminatory that currency isn't
>> accessible and I feared -- and still fear -- that the lawsuit could have
>> serious blow-back consequences if the adverse ruling was broader than
>> the original suit.
>>
>> Mike Freeman
>> ... "It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly." -- Anatole
>> France
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